The promo image in question was posted in a now-deleted (but still archived) social media post last Thursday, showing five new “retro frame” versions of lands from the upcoming Ravnica Remastered set in a nondescript steampunk-style laboratory. While the image looks unobjectionable at first glance, careful viewers soon zoomed in on specific and incongruous background details in the lab that showed telltale errors common to some AI image generators. (The human authorship of the art on the cards themselves, it should be noted, has not yet come under question.)

The suggestion that AI art tools were used in a promo image is particularly sensitive for Wizards of the Coast, which has relied on hundreds of human artists to generate tens of thousands of iconic images for its Magic cards and its Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) products over the years. Last August, when a longtime D&D artist was found to be using AI tools for commissioned pieces, WotC said that it was “updating our artist guidelines to make clear that artists must refrain from using AI art generation as part of their art creation process for developing D&D art.”

In December, amid a wave of company layoffs that included many human art directors, WotC publicly reaffirmed its “internal guidance” that “we require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the Magic TCG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final Magic products.”

As accusations of AI use in the creation of the promo image grew throughout the day, WotC posted multiple defenses on Thursday (such as this archived, now-deleted post) insisting that the art in question “was created by humans and not AI.” But given the evidence, the situation was too much for veteran MtG artist Dave Rapoza, who has created art for dozens of Magic cards going back years.